Vanderbilt University wants to build a $520 million campus in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida, that would feature a business school as large as its existing one on its main campus in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Palm Beach Post reports that a Vanderbilt business school in West Palm Beach would create more than $7.1 billion in total local economic activity over the next 25 years.
The West Palm Beach campus would include an "innovation hub" and a college for computer science and artificial intelligence.
Vanderbilt would spend $268 million for academic buildings, $217 million for student housing and another $35 million for a parking garage. Plans call for more than 300,000 square feet of space. Construction would create more than 5,600 jobs.
The university is expected to ask Palm Beach County to donate five of the seven acres it needs to assemble the campus. University officials are also expected to also call on the City of West Palm Beach to provide another 2 adjacent acres.
The potential deal with Vanderbilt comes nearly 18 months after a similar pitch from the University of Florida in early 2022. Negotiations on a sale took place for several months in 2022, but the deal fell apart late in the year.
The Vanderbilt campus would be home to 1,000 students.
